


after

by beingjanee



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Gen, Multi, Post-Winter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 20:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21185837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beingjanee/pseuds/beingjanee
Summary: A one-shot collection, glimpsing at what comes after.





	1. endor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Thorne discovers an unlikely likeness.

They visit the Redwoods first.

It’s partly because it’s in California, and Thorne has wanted to come back ever since he first heard that he was pardoned, and for all he says about being a rogue and a free spirit, Cress can see in the relieved jerk of his chin, the steady grin on his face, how much it means to him that he can _ go home_. 

It’s partly because she’s wanted to see a proper tree. And Thorne, being who he is, decided that if she was going to see a tree, it was going to be the biggest damn tree on the planet. 

But mostly — really, just almost entirely — it’s because they can. Because no one is chasing them or making demands or trapping them somewhere dark and dusty and too small. Because now, they can breathe. 

She walks ahead of him, the too-long sleeves of her fluffy blue sweater wrapped around her hands as she raises them to her face, her eyes growing wider and wider at the sheer height of these trees. She gasps a little and then glances back to make sure Thorne is there. He’s watching her with a pleased smile on his face, the right corner of his lip lifting upwards. 

“So, what do you think?” He gestures around him, as if trees are his creation and he’s gifting them to her. Cinder would roll her eyes, Cress thinks, but his cockiness has always made Cress’s stomach lurch, just a little. 

“It’s_ perfect_.”

She comes up to him, dragging a small pale hand out of one sleeve to grasp his own. “But they look a little familiar.”

He raises an eyebrow at her as he lifts his other hand to brush away a wisp of hair on her forehead. “Oh?”

She shivers a little at his touch. After all of this time, after having been kissed and kissed some more, he still makes her melt with these small gestures. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to it. 

“There are these movies from the second era...they were really popular, like really popular. But you probably never saw them. I think people stopped watching them because once Earthens actually started going to space and filming in space, the movies couldn’t compare to the real thing. But I loved them. I would rewatch them all the time. It’s funny, you would think being trapped in space would make me hate space movies, but I think I loved how free all of the characters were.” 

Thorne looks down at her with the same smile, but a shadow crosses his face. He doesn’t like being reminded of all those years Cress spent in a satellite, trapped and made to do Sybil’s bidding. Some days, Cress feels like she’s made more peace with it than he has. 

She leans forward, raising herself slightly so she’s on her toes. She presses her lips to the corner of Thorne’s mouth, the corner that always goes up when he’s amused or sheepish or hatching a plan. She can feel him relax under her, and his hand goes to her waist as he turns his head so that their lips meet. She smiles a little into the kiss, and then she draws back, out of his arms and back on to the path, gesturing up at the trees as if nothing has happened. Thorne stands with his arms still drawn out, his eyes flashing in both amusement and hunger. 

“Anyways, in these movies, there’s a scene where the heroes crash land on a moon full of these furry aliens. It’s a forest moon, and it looks just like this. Huge trees everywhere.” 

Thorne snorts. “As a kid from California, let me tell you, I know my movies. Even old second era movies. And those movies were shot here, in the Redwoods. This is that forest.”

Cress claps her hands over her mouth again. Her eyes shine as she looks around at the trees again. “So it is the same forest!”

Thorne chuckles, stepping forward and grasping Cress’s hand again. She looks away from the trees and back at him, and he realizes he can never get tired of the sheer joy that blooms across her face when she discovers something interesting or beautiful. It’s a sight all on its own.

“You know, there’s a character in those movies who reminds me a lot of you,” she says, leaning slightly on his arm. 

He grins down at her, already confident in her answer. “I think I know exactly who you’re talking about.”

“Yeah,” she replies dreamily. “Chewbacca.”

He recoils at that, his face twisting in mock outrage. “_Chewbacca _?”

Cress giggles. “Yeah. You know, you’re both super loyal, experienced pilots, rebels, you have some trouble following the rules…” Her tone is light, teasing. Thorne can’t help the grin from spreading across his face as he looks down at her, even as he’s doing his best to keep up the charade of his outrage. She knows exactly what she’s doing it, dammit, and he loves it.

“You’ve got a really bad eye for comparison, you know that?”

“I’m just joking! You know that,” she laughs, and she wraps her arm around his. 

He makes a face at her. “Still. _ Chewbacca_.” 

He chortles, shaking his head as they continue walking through the forest.


	2. omelette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kai is willing to eat anything. (Not a euphemism.)

Kai isn’t sure what to make of the blackened mess that’s on his plate.

“This is...an omelette?”

Cinder groans, pushing her hair out of her face. “I know. I know, I’m sorry. I wanted to make something for you but I didn’t know what, and Iko suggested breakfast and ugh, you would think with a netscreen in my head, I would be better at following a simple recipe—”

She falls silent as Kai shovels a forkful of burnt egg into his mouth, chewing vigorously and without expression. He swallows, shrugs, and slathers the rest of the omelette with generous sprays of hot sauce before eating another forkful.

“It’s really…” Chew, chew, gulp. Swallow. “Not that bad.”

His eyebrow twitches and Kai thanks the stars that he’s received years and years of diplomacy training to keep his expression neutral even in the worst circumstances. He’s pretty sure he’s eaten an entire eggshell.

Cinder doesn’t blush, but he knows all of the signs by now. Her chest inflates slightly with her increased breaths of air, her lips quirk, and her brows contract. She looks at him in half misery, half adoration, and it’s enough for him to push the plate aside and lean over the table to kiss her.

He cups her face with one hand, dropping the fork with a clatter beneath them. She breathes in sharply, and then she’s kissing him back, her lips soft. Not synthetic, he thinks. Definitely not anywhere close to synthetic.

Not that it would ever matter.

His other hand closes around her metal hand that’s steadying the two of them against the table. She doesn’t have nerve endings in that hand, but she can still somehow feel the gentle brush of his fingers across her knuckles. She smiles into the kiss.

When they finally break apart, she whistles, low and soft. “Yikes. That’s a terrible omelette.”

Kai chuckles. “The hot sauce makes it better.”

She gives him a quick nudge backwards, making him fall back into his chair. “Next time, you make breakfast, Your Majesty.”

Something in Kai’s stomach warms at the idea of a next time. There’s going to be a next time. No more long months spent on two different celestial spheres, no more tiny snatches of privacy in between treaty meetings and long diplomatic dinners — there’s going to be a next time.

“That’s not fair. I can’t call you Your Majesty anymore.”

Cinder smiles at him. “Well, maybe you can again. Sometime soon.”

Kai’s eyes widen. He stares at the former queen of Luna as she ducks her head shyly, clearly frazzled by what she’s just said, and then he marches around the table and pins Cinder against it. He takes her face in both of his hands and kisses her long and hard and deep, and she wraps her arms around his neck until she can feel his heart beating beneath her.

The omelette cools behind them.


	3. doorways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Wolf develops a new habit.

Scarlet wakes again to find Wolf curled up by the door, half hidden in the moonlight.

He’s not wearing his shirt, and his unnaturally long limbs seem to be even more emphasized in the pale glow. The scars that run along his body are like dark gashes, and Scarlet breathes in a little too sharply. She has to remind herself for a brief second that everything is fine. They’re back on Earth, back on the farm.

“Wolf?”

She says his name gently. She thought he was asleep in the doorway, but as she peered at him, she saw his green eyes blinking. They were staring at nothing, nothing but the darkness. At invisible enemies, at everyone who had hurt them.

Her missing finger aches slightly, the phantom pain still haunting her. She had asked Cinder if there was anything that could be done about that, especially when she had her new replacement digit, but Cinder had shrugged and smiled at her sadly.

She hasn’t mentioned the pain to Wolf. She doesn’t think she could bear the look on his face.

She crawls out of bed, hissing as her feet touch the cold floor. She drags a blanket over, trailing it towards Wolf, and kneels beside him.

“Ze’ev. It’s okay.”

She traces a finger down his jaw. He closes his eyes and shivers, before leaning in and nuzzling her collarbone, an arm coiling around her. His gentleness is all the more remarkable, knowing his strength. She turns and wraps the blanket around the two of them, and they lie together in the darkness, next to the hard wood of the door.

“Scarlet.” He says her name like a prayer, whispered and reverential. “I’m sorry.”

She smiles at him. “Whatever for?”

He only stares at her, the answer lying in the silence between them. For everything.

Scarlet doesn’t say anything else. She understands this desperate need to apologize; she feels it too. Maybe not as much as Wolf, who had claimed her and all of their friends as part of his pack, and who still felt like he could have done a better job of protecting them from the horrors they had gone through. She knows that it’ll take some time for this feeling to go away, for the guilt and the fear to recede. She knows it might never be completely gone, that there will be more nights when she finds Wolf curled up at this door, listening for possible intruders.

But that’s okay. They have a lifetime to heal.

She snuggles into Wolf’s arms, tracing outlines of words on his hand and on his chest. He stares down at her, his green eyes as intense as the first day that she met him, and his breathing slowly eases. “I know what you’re writing,” he says.

She glances up, a smile quirking her lips. Even with hair tangled from sleep, even in the darkness, she takes his breath away with that smile. The noise in his head dims; it’s replaced by the words that she’s written all along his arm, all over his chest. The words that she’s written over him like a protective spell.

_I love you. I love you. I love you._

They sleep in the doorway, wrapped in each other. 


End file.
